Jacksonville water taxis won't be back in water for Saturday's soccer game and Carrie Underwood concert

Jacksonville Transportation Authority will provide bus shuttles to EverBank Field

A new water taxi is unloaded from a tractor trailer Tuesday, July 8, 2014 at Sadler Point Marina in Jacksonville.

Another big event will rock downtown Jacksonville this weekend without water taxis rolling on the river.

Two pontoon boats that will enable the city to resume water taxi service are going through the U.S. Coast Guard’s weeks-long certification process, which could run into August or even early September.

That won’t be in time for the Saturday event at EverBank Field when the city showcases the stadium’s gigantic new scoreboards during a Fulham F.C. soccer game and a Carrie Underwood concert.

Instead, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority will be offering special bus shuttle service to EverBank Field, starting at 4 p.m. Saturday from the Prime Osborn Convention Center parking lot at a round-trip cost of $7.

When the company that previously operated the water taxi service pulled out of Jacksonville on June 6, the city scrambled to get replacement boats in time for a series of summer events – the U.S. men’s soccer game and Florida Country Superfest at EverBank Field, and the Fourth of July fireworks show.

But the lack of water taxis will continue for at least one more weekend.

“We’d love to have them for those types of special events,” said Pam Roman, spokeswoman for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. “Those are the kind of events we talk about when we talk about having additional seating” for water taxis.

Based on how long it takes for boats to get Coast Guard certification, it’s not clear the city ever had a realistic chance of restarting the water taxi service in time for the U.S. men’s soccer game on June 7 or Florida Country SuperFest the following weekend.

To prevent a break in service, city administrators made an emergency $338,500 purchase of two boats. But city lawyers said that was an “unauthorized purchase” because City Council hadn’t agreed to it. Beaver Street Fisheries owner Harry Frisch then stepped in and agreed to buy the boats — Sea Charm 1 and Native Choice — and lease them to the city.

Native Choice does not have a certificate of documentation, which is like vehicle registration, so it needs to get that paperwork from a U.S. Coast Guard facility located in West Virginia.

Sea Charm 1 does have a certificate of documentation, but that must be updated through the West Virginia office to show the ownership change and that it will be sailing in a different area of Florida.

The turnaround time for both boats getting the certification is up to four to six weeks, said Coast Guard Lt. Commander Marc Montemerlo, who is based in Mayport.

“It can come in earlier than that, but they tell me four to six weeks maximum,” he said.

After Frisch obtains certificates of documentation, he will ask the local Coast Guard station to conduct inspections of both boats. Montemerlo said it typically can take a couple of days to one week for the Coast Guard to schedule and conduct those inspections.

Jeff Edwards, a Jacksonville resident who is helping Frisch on the certification process, said they are working with a company that specializes in helping boat owners get certificates of documentation. He said the company indicated that would take “two to three weeks tops.”

“We’re pushing as hard as we can,” Edwards said. “You’re dealing with a bureaucratic process, and there’s no quick way through a bureaucracy.”

“We’re in constant communication with them,” Montemerlo said of Frisch and city officials. “We’re doing our best to move the process along.”

item III on the 7/23/14 Jacksonville Waterways Commission agenda was Tera Meeks, Chief of Waterfront Management Programming and she was giving the Waterways Commission members an update on the illegal Unauthorized purchase of the water taxis by the Mayor Brown administration.

Let's all remember that the contract was allowed to expire and the poor out of town Baltimore guys were told that the RFP requires, demands, insists, without compromise an operation that has a 350 seat capacity and NOT the 346 that you currently have so you are a loser. And your butt is being kicked to the curb.

So Tera announced at the meeting that we now have a new 120 seat capacity total and we have an operating agreement with a 3rd party and that is Lake Shore Marine LLC and anything goes.

The best part of the Illegal Unauthorized purchase of the water taxis by the Executive branch is that now we will use a procurement loophole that will take the Legislative branch our 19 members of the Jacksonville city council completely out of the deal. So kids. No council approval.

Ride the RIO St. Johns as we transport you from one illegal side of the river to the other illegal side of the river.